Presidential cryptocurrencies are all the rage right now, but one trader managed to lose close to $1,000,000 by investing in one that turned out to be a fake, looking to cash in on the massive hype in the industry.
Cryptocurrencies have been on a high since Donald Trump emerged victorious from the US election in early November last year. While Bitcoin has certainly been the standout, having soared past the $100,000 mark for the first time in its history, there have been many other success stories with what would otherwise be classified as 'meme coins'.
Options like Dogecoin - which was spurred on by the creation of Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, shortened to 'DOGE' - have proven to be incredibly successful for savvy buyers, and the market has seen a number of other coins have short-lived successes and controversial failures.
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Perhaps the biggest surprise of the lot, however, is the arrival of $TRUMP - a crypto coin directly backed and created by the President of the United States.
This was significantly invested in by Trump himself, and has seen over 500 people become millionaires in just 24 hours due to the coins success, even if it dropped after Trump's own wife Melania also released a meme coin branded after herself.
While these successes are very much legitimate in the unregulated crypto market, this does also leave space for imitators looking to make a quick buck at the misfortune of people too caught up in the chaos to realize they're being scammed.
As reported by the Crypto Times, $BARRON - a coin modelled after Trump's youngest son, who was seen looking bemused at the inauguration - has managed to successfully dupe many into thinking that it's associated with the President's family, leaving one trader with a hefty $1,000,000 loss in just two hours.
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If you're in any way familiar with cryptocurrencies then you'll be able to recognize this as a classic pump-and-dump scheme where the creator of the coin mass sells their stock once the price reaches a certain point, making it drop significantly in almost an instant.
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While this remains an incredibly profitable, unethical, and arguably illegal method, it unfortunately happens quite a lot due to the unregulated nature of the market and can leave otherwise unsuspecting traders out of pocket.
Some on social media have offered their condolences to the unlucky trader, with one remarking: "And I feel bad for losing 1k or more sometimes, imagine $1M [skull emoji]."
Another adds that "FOMO is one helluva drug," and it's hard to ignore how easy it is for some traders to feel like they have to invest in order to catch the next big wave - It just doesn't help that the person leading that charge is the President too.